Latest / Best of: Features / Luka Doncic is off to a spectacular offensive start for the Lakers with a string of 40-point games
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- 0:05Luka Doncic is off to a spectacular offensive start for the Lakers
- 0:08with a string of forty point games. Written by Greg Beecham. This
- 0:14article is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlet. Los
- 0:20Angeles, the AP, although Luka Donkic is in his ninth NBA season
- 0:24as one of the sport's most dynamic scorers, he has rarely been
- 0:27better than this. Two weeks into the Los Angeles Lakers first season
- 0:31following LeBron James's departure, Donkicks is scorching opponents with one brilliant offensive
- 0:37performance after another. Donkick even did it back to back over the
- 0:41past two days, putting up forty five points and fifteen rebounds in
- 0:44a win over Toronto on Sunday night, before dropping forty two points,
- 0:48thirteen assists and seven rebounds in another comfortable victory over Miami on
- 0:53Monday night. It feels good, but when we win, it feels way
- 0:57better, Donkick said. That's the only important stuff. Obviously, it feels good
- 1:01to score, but when you win by twenty against a team like
- 1:04Miami, it's really awesome, especially on a back to back. Donkik has
- 1:09scored at least thirty seven points in five consecutive games, topping forty
- 1:13in four of those outings. He has made thirty four three pointers
- 1:17in that stretch while hitting fifty three point one percent of his
- 1:20shots overall. And fittingly for a season that began with a dramatic
- 1:24half court bucket over a trash talking opponent, Donkick is lighting up
- 1:29the scoreboard with style and flair to spare. He's hitting tough shots
- 1:33from all over the court, throwing creative passes and rebounding with relish.
- 1:37As his teammates have repeatedly pointed out, Donkick is even giving a
- 1:41serious defensive effort that hasn't always been part of his game, culminating
- 1:46in. Five steals against the Raptors. It's crazy, Lakers guard Quentin Grimes
- 1:51said. It just feels like almost anything he shoots. Whether it's a
- 1:55circus shot, or whether it's a regular step back three, or it's
- 1:58a tough look, it seems like everything he shoots is going to
- 2:01go in. It's kind of surreal. I don't think I've ever been
- 2:04on the court when everything somebody shoots, you think it's going in.
- 2:08It's kind of crazy the heater he's on, for sure. Donkik has
- 2:12won two of the past three NBA scoring titles, and he's the
- 2:15early leader again by a wide margin after this prolific surge that
- 2:18began with a fifty two point performance at Utah. He had forty
- 2:22one and thirty seven in his next two games, both losses before
- 2:26his back to back spree at the Lakers downtown arena. The Lakers
- 2:30are off to a six and two start, despite having nine new
- 2:33players on their roster after another summer of turnover, but they're already
- 2:37coming together behind their Slovenian superstar. It feels like a supernova, but
- 2:42it also feels normal, Lakers coach J. J. Reddick said. We live
- 2:46on a spaceship, and we're going at the speed of light at
- 2:49all times when he's on the court. When he has it going,
- 2:51it's pick your poison, because he can just make any shot. And
- 2:55the you start putting two oo on the ball, and everybody else
- 2:57is the beneficiary of that. He's a terrific offensive engine. Indeed, opponents
- 3:03have reacted to Donkick's role by blitzing him with two or three
- 3:07defenders well outside the three point arc. The Lakers are already making
- 3:11the obvious adjustments to that strategy. Donkick repeatedly passed out of trouble
- 3:16and found his teammates in better positions over the last two games,
- 3:19and those teammates relished their open three pointers. Los Angeles went thirty
- 3:24seven for eighty beyond the arc in the past two games, while
- 3:28scoring two hundred and sixty nine total points. It's not just me,
- 3:32it's everybody, Donkick said Everybody is in the right spots, and shooting
- 3:36with confidence. Indeed, the Lakers racked up thirty nine assists against the
- 3:41Heat, the most they've had in a game, since Reddick took over
- 3:44in twenty twenty four. The Lakers also lead the league in team
- 3:48field goal percentage, and New Center Walker Kessler is the NBA's most
- 3:52accurate individual shooter thanks to the dozens of lobs already thrown to
- 3:56him by Donkick and their teammates. While James playmaking and leadership could
- 4:01be missed later in the year, this Lakers roster built around Donkick
- 4:05is getting an early taste of just how good it can be.
- 4:08It's fun, said Austin Reeves, who had twenty seven points against Miami.
- 4:12Luca is doing incredible things, and when he's doing that, it just
- 4:16opens up the floor for everybody else, to play free and confident,
- 4:19and I feel like that's what we did to night. See the
- 4:22AP's full NBA coverage here.